Giuseppe Sannino pleased after comfortable Watford win

Giuseppe Sannino was pleased Watford's work-rate and effort was rewarded with three Sky Bet Championship points against Brighton and Hove Albion.

However, after the 2-0 home defeat of the Seagulls the Italian drew on his own experience at Nottingham Forest on Thursday to help praise his side.

The Hornets head coach had to pick himself out and dust down his suit after before floored by a sliding Dan Harding during his side's 4-2 televised defeat.

Sannino said: "I'm happy for my team because we came from three games where we didn't get what we deserved.

"But I want to start this press conference with a little story. Before the game the Watford team were like the pictures of me at Nottingham Forest, remember when I slipped? My suit was completely crazy.

"There was only one way to react, to stand up."

Watford's effective pressing game was a feature of their performance and Sannino said: "I knew that Brighton before this game were the best team in terms of goals conceded away from home and if we score two goals it's because the pressing was very good.

"But (I was also impressed by) the desire of my lads and the effort that we were able to put into the game - we worked our socks off today.

"We named Troy (Deeney) and (Fernando) Forestieri but all the team today was performing at a high standard, a high level. The little, big man - Cristian Battocchio - played the last three games in a position where if you could record how many kilometres he runs would be amazing. T he balance we saw today on the pitch, we have to give credit to Cristian."

Brighton assistant boss Nathan Jones stood in for Oscar Garcia and admitted it had been a frustrating afternoon for his side.

He said: "The first one [goal] did come slightly against the run of play but they took that, it kind of knocked the wind out of us a little bit and we huffed and puffed without really taking the game to them.

"Then obviously the second goal came at a bad time as well and to rub salt into the wounds with the disallowed goal, that might have come at a time when we might have kicked on and got something out of the game.

"All round, we're quite frustrated really."

The Seagulls gave a debut to new signing Dale Stephens and Jones was pleased with his efforts.

He added: "Dale contributed today. You can see he's bright and busy with what he does. It's just sad really it was in a losing performance.

"We're not putting pressure on him because we know what he can do. He's very mobile, a very forward-thinking player and we're very happy to have him here."